There’s a reason folk painters kept returning to the flamingo; rooms still respond. The bird is deep red, loose and hand-painted, standing square against a blue and butter-yellow check. Put it up and a plain room gets a point of view: the check does the pattern work, the red does the shouting. It suits a kitchen wall, a hallway at eye level, or above a child’s chest of drawers. Keep the company simple painted wood, rattan, striped cotton, blue-and-white china. What it doesn’t want is competing pattern on the same wall, so skip busy wallpaper and floral curtains right beside it. On fine-art paper the brush marks and dry-edged check stay crisp and flat.